SOLITUDE

Canada, 2001, 86 minutes, Colour.
Lothaire Bluteau, Vanessa Martinez, Wendy Anderson, Eugene Lipinski.
Directed by Robin Schlaht.
Solitude is a small, contemplative film. It is set in a Benedictine monastery in the countryside of Saskatchewan, Canada.
The film focuses on the Benedictine community and its hospitality to those who come for retreat. Three of the guests for this film are a woman reassessing her career, a young woman trying to find her identity, a Benedictine monk who is experiencing a crisis of prayer and faith. The film focuses on each of the characters as well as their interactions, the nature of the journey, their spiritual experiences, the possibilities of faith.

1. The importance of the title? Content, film style, the nature of audience response?
2. Audience interest in the film, spirituality, the interior life, a retreat, self-examination?
3. St Peter’s Abbey in Saskatchewan? Exteriors, the grounds, the countryside? The interiors, the rooms for the visitors, dining, corridors…? Chapel? The musical score?
4. The structure of the film: introduction to the abbey, the arrival of the visitors, the settling in, the stories, inter-cutting? Personal resolutions?
5. The nature of the spiritual journey? At the beginning of the 21st century? In a specifically Catholic context, Benedictine context? For secular spirituality?
6. The monastery itself, the community and its lifestyle, the superior? Providing a context for the visitors?
7. Brother Bernard, in himself, personality, introverted? His limited experience? Limited emotionality? Coming to the monastery, what did he hope for? His previous experience as a monk, prayer, contemplation? The importance of his interior monologues? His reaction to realising he was praying for faith? His watching the women? Interest in Michelle? The contrast with his own experience? In awakening emotions? Sexual dimension? His future?
8. Michelle, at 19? Her life experience? Limited? Her not realising this? Why a religious experience? The abbey? Her adapting to life there? The nature of her spiritual quest, the shortness of her journey? Becoming acquainted with Laura? Listening to her, reflecting on her own life? The bonds between the women? Mother-daughter? Her going to town, her flirting? The man giving her a lift, his wife and the truck? Something between them? Her interactions with Brother Bernard? What did she want from him? Get from him? A token souvenir? Her dressing as a nun? Its purpose? A nun-fantasy?
9. Laura, her background, her age, coming to the abbey? Her quest? Spiritual? Interactions with Brother Bernard, with Michelle? The friendship with Michelle, the effect on her, its breaking down, her departure and its effect on Michelle?
10. Sharing in spiritual journeys, the interiority, the need for interiority? The need for spiritual direction?
11. A spiritual experience for the audience or not?